If your Internet Explorer Browser cannot open a particular website, or if you are unable to access a particular website; try these trouble-shooting steps, one after the other.
1) First I suggest you clear your cache and try again.
2) Else I suggest you scan your computer with your anti virus and anti-spyware, as it is quite possible that it could be a malware wanting to prevent opening of a particular site/s. Please also check if any of your security software / firewall is not blocking the site.
3) Next have a look at your Hosts file. The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. It is situated at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC. Check if the site you want to open is mentioned there. If its is present there and if it has the numerals 127.0.0.1 your web page probably wont open as it is the most commonly utilized address for localhost. If you feel that your Hosts file has been tampered with, you can download and reset Hosts file.
4) Add the particular site to the Trusted Sites List, and see if it helps.
To do so > Open IE > Tools > Internet Options > Security Tab > Trusted Sites > Click Sites > Uncheck ‘Require server verification’ check box.
Now, in the ‘Add this website to the zone’ box, type the url of the site as, say : http://www.microsoft.com and click Add. Then click OK.
5) You may also want to check if the particular site is blocked by IE. Check Internet Options > Security Tab > Restricted Sites > Sites. Here you can see the Restricted Sites.
6) Open Internet Options from the Tools tab of IE. In Security click ‘Reset all zones to default level‘. Click Ok. Restart IE and try.
7) Or else, ‘Reset Internet Explorer Settings‘. Open IE > Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Click Reset > Close >OK. Restart IE.
8) Check if you are able to visit the particular site with its numerical IP addresses. Incidentally, microsoft.com is the most commonly blocked site, by malware. If you are able to access it via the IP’s, I suggest you flush your DNS cache.
